Friday, February 15, 2008

Dear Diary...

So I just got back from a midnight screening of George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead. Thanks to Kyle, we heard about this just in time to make it out to the Cameras downtown.

If you're concerned that uncle George has gone and shot himself a Blair Witch or Cloverfield knock-off, cast those doubts aside. Yes, the film is cut together from found footage, primarily that of a college filmmaker and his friends, supplemented with news reports and security footage. The good news for those who had trouble with the nature of those films, I doubt this would prey upon even the most sensitive viewers motion sickness.

The characters, in classic Romero form, are a love-em or hate-em bunch. The dead are plentiful and get plenty of opportunities to do their thing, and the scary bits are well balanced with moments of unparalleled Romero humor and pathos.

Romero has come full circle 40 years after the release of Night of the Living Dead, giving us a new perspective on the death of death - the phrase he coined to so accurately describe the undead phenomenon. Five films later and he's still not regurgitating his own ideas. Each has something new to say, and he always manages to find a fresh way to say it.

Also fun was listening for the audio cameos throughout, usually coming in the way of radio broadcasts or news reports. I won't spoil any here, although I'd be happy to compare notes once you've seen it. And I do need to see it again, as I realized later that I had missed some.

Oh, I won an "Untraceable" T-shirt and Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave DVD in a trivia contest, which I will pass on to the first person who can answer the same question I did. In what city does the original Dawn of the Dead take place (and the answer they were looking for was city it was shot in, and to give you a hint, it's not Pittsburgh, like the first guy guessed).

A new Indiana Jones trailer and a new Romero dead flick, all in one day. Happy Valentine's Day everybody!